This paper deals with the role of national minority councils through the prism of the concept of non-territorial autonomy. These councils were established as institutes for minority representation, ...aiming to strengthen the influence of national minorities on local and regional politics in the part related to their position. Similar forms of minority representation are established in most European countries and are often analysed within the concepts and distinction of non-territorial autonomy and territorial autonomy. As will be shown in the paper, territorial autonomy presupposes a much higher degree of autonomy for minority institutions in deciding on issues important for national minorities. It is more suitable for countries where these minorities reside in certain parts of the national territory. In practice, we often encounter minority political institutions that have features of non-territorial autonomy. These institutions can assume various forms and achieve different degrees of autonomy in deciding on local policies and affairs of interest to minority groups. Although councils of national minorities possess substantial democratisation potential and can significantly contribute to the position of national minorities, previous research does not support this claim. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (i) to determine whether national minority councils constitute an institutional form of non-territorial autonomy and (ii) to assess their actual role in promoting and protecting the interests of national minorities within local political processes. In order to examine this, the paper employs legal analysis, a review of secondary data available in scientific and professional literature, and a direct analysis of available data on the financing of national minority councils and voter participation in elections for these councils. The role of national minority councils is analysed in four aspects: the legal basis of non-territorial autonomy, the right to self-regulation, the right to establish own decision-making bodies and their scope of work, and their financing. In addition, the voter response to council elections is analysed as a possible indicator of the legitimacy of directly elected bodies. With regard to the legal basis of their establishment, it can be concluded that they enjoy the highest level of protection, having been established by constitutional law, which, due to the adoption procedure, holds a position between the Constitution and other organic laws. Furthermore, the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia guarantees members of national minorities the right to cultural autonomy, and the councils are an expression of the explicitly recognised collective rights of national minorities. They were established as a collective entity with legal personality. The legislator intended to establish councils as “minority self-government” institutions in local and regional self-government units. However, many authors state that, for a number of reasons, councils cannot be characterised as such. This brings us to their real role, manifested in the right of councils to self-regulation, self-organisation and the establishment of their own decision-making bodies as essential determinants of non-territorial autonomy. The councils adopt various acts, including a statute regulating important aspects of their operation, a work programme, a financial plan, a final account, and other internal acts governing matters crucial to their functioning. They also have their own decision-making bodies, primarily the president and deputy president of the council, and have the authority to establish other working bodies. However, the council’s powers are regulated by constitutional law and are reduced to a solely consultative role. Therefore, the question arises as to their actual influence in shaping political decisions related to the interests of national minorities, as they depend on the cooperation and will of local political actors in this regard. Another problem is the limited financial and administrative resources available for their functioning. The political legitimacy of the council, gained through minority electorate participation in elections, is also questionable, given the extremely low voter turnout across all election cycles. This is also an indicator of the council’s non-recognition as a relevant entity in protecting the rights of national minorities at the local level. To conduct a deeper analysis of the actual role of national minority councils and verify their influence in individual local communities, empirical research is necessary. The paper concludes that, although councils have a high level of legal protection, political legitimacy, internal bodies, and institutional experience, they are confined to a consultative role and lack significant influence over local political processes important for national minorities.
The aim of this paper is to examine the current model of employment of national minorities in the Croatian public administration. The author is focussed on the influence of normative measures ...applicable to the special forms of national minorities’ employment in the Croatian public administration on the de facto employment status of national minorities. For that purpose, a review and analysis of the Croatian legislation in the field of employment of national minorities in public administration was first carried out with regard to the timeline of the adoption of regulations and provisions regulating special forms of employment. Subsequently, the results of the analysis are presented. After that, the data on the employment of national minorities in the public administration bodies for the 2006–2015 period were examined taking into consideration the number of persons belonging to national minorities employed in organisations and their share in the total number of civil servants employed and employees in general. Based on this, consideration is given to the adequacy of the existing employment model and the need for its change, i.e. the introduction of new / additional employment measures that should contribute to the equitable representation of national minorities in relation to their share in the population.First of all, this paper provides a short overview of the ‘national minority’ concept, pointing to the fact that there is no unified, universally accepted definition of the term. The Croatian legislation provides for the definition of national minorities and guarantees their equality with the citizens of Croatian nationality. This chapter also deals with the changes relating to the ethnic structure of Croatian society. For that purpose, indexes of change have been calculated on the basis of census data. In the period from 1991 to 2011, the share of persons of Croatian nationality grew by 3.7% while the proportion of members of national minorities decreased by almost 60%. Bearing in mind the existence of different aspects and a variety of models of selection and employment of national minorities that appear in practice, the paper briefly outlines the most frequently used measures that should contribute to the achievement of substantive equality (non-discrimination) and their integration in public organisations. Employment of national minorities in public administration assumes a special approach of selection and employment of civil servants. Changes in the socio-demographic structure of the population, combined with the more and more intensive complexity of modern societies, lead to public policies development and a whole scale of measures which endeavour to reflect the complexity of the social environment through the structure of human resources in the public administration. Additionally, special forms of national minorities’ employment have been developed in the framework of the international antidiscrimination law since mid-1960s. It can be defined as the adoption of a set of special measures of employment aimed at the prevention, reduction or compensation for the disadvantage in areas of employment and integration of minorities in public organisations. Special or positive measures are, in principle, temporary because they should contribute to the improvement of the position of national minorities and, therefore, their duration should be determined by their functional result in response to a concrete problem. Besides, they are perceived as an exception to the general principles of non-discrimination.In the Croatian public administration, national minorities are employed by applying special employment measures that have been introduced since the beginning of the 1990s in terms of employment obligations for public organisations. Specific regulations do not define specific measures. Their goal and scope were first defined in the Anti-Discrimination Act in 2008, and are related, among other things, to the area of employment, work and working conditions. The law defines them as an exception to the prohibition of discrimination, in accordance with the acquis communautaire. However, special employment measures were not implemented during the 1990s, that is, the suspension of these rights came about. In addition, the mechanisms for securing special employment rights were not stipulated, such as the establishment of records to enable the exercise of rights to special forms of employment to be monitored. The situation in which the laws initially introduced special public administration employment measures in for national minorities, but which were not implemented in practice, continued until the beginning of 2000. It can be concluded, therefore, that the rights of national minorities to exercise special employment measures in this period regressed. In the forthcoming period, the system was improved. Provision was made for the exercise of the right to employment priority which was to ensure the proportional representation of national minorities in the public administration bodies according to their share in the total population. Additionally, mechanisms for monitoring the exercise of the right to representation of national minorities in public administration bodies were introduced. At this stage, the impact of normative alignment with the acquis communautaire and European standards on changes in the employment system was particularly pronounced, so it can be understood as consolidation in the field of employment of national minorities.Considering the research question of this paper, an analysis of the real effects of positive legislation on the employment of national minorities in the Croatian public administration is provided in the subsequent chapter. Minorities are provided with the right to representation in the state administration bodies, judicial bodies and administrative bodies of local and regional self-government units. Employment data in these bodies have been recorded since 2006. The analysis of the data on the number of persons employed in the state administration bodies belonging to national minorities shows a decrease in the number of employees, i.e. a reduction of the percentage of national minorities in the total number of employees with two basic characteristics. First, the continuous decline in the number of employees over a ten-year period is observed. Second, the share of members of national minorities in the total number of employees is not nearly proportional to their share in the total population. When it comes to the units of local and regional self-government, similar results are observed. During the period under review, there has been a steady decline in the number of minority employees and employees in general, while the share of minority employees in the total number of employees continues to decline. At the same time, the number of units that are required to ensure the representation of members of national minorities in their governing bodies is reduced.The analysis indicates problems in implementing special measures for the employment of national minorities in the Croatian public administration. Based on this, some conclusions and recommendations are presented in the paper. The first recommendation relates to the establishment of a reliable instrument for monitoring, analysing and evaluating measures that are being implemented, as such does not exist in Croatia. This is especially important because the existing model does not lead to satisfactory outcomes. Second, and in this connection, the unsatisfactory effects of the current model of employment of national minorities in public administration should encourage the adoption of additional employment measures that may be complementary to the employment objectives as the sole and exclusive measure of special forms of minority employment in Croatia. For example, there may be additional measures such as encouraging employment, promotional campaigns, and targeted advertising. Finally, given the fact that the right of national minorities to employment in public administration is stipulated as a right to proportional representation of their share in the total population, which cannot be achieved by the existing measures, it is necessary to consider extending the scope of the bodies obligated to ensure employment priority to members of national minorities in the entire public sector.
The concept of good governance is analyzed with particular emphasis on reasons that contributed to its development, main characteristics and possible impact on reform approaches which aim at ...achieving quality of contemporary governance. Different conceptions and developmental characteristics of governance are firstly examined, concluding with contemporary conceptualization that tends to widely engage citizens and civil society in the decision-making process, and at the same time accomplish greater effectiveness of public services as a precondition to economic and social development. According to findings presented in this article, this modern approach to the study of governance is in close connection with the effects of managerial reforms and the globalization process. Good governance principles introduced in the European Commission's document "European Governance -- A White Paper" are especially focused on. The research's starting assumption was that those principles derive from the so-called Copenhagen criteria, or political, economic and institutional conditions for membership in the European Union. The article identifies three main characteristics of different approaches to the concept of good governance: strengthening of administrative capacities, determination of principles which should contribute to the quality of contemporary governance assessment, and wider engagement of and consultation with the civil society.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The concept of good governance is analyzed with particular emphasis on reasons that contributed to its development, main characteristics and possible impact on reform approaches which aim at ...achieving quality of contemporary governance. Different conceptions and developmental characteristics of governance are firstly examined, concluding with contemporary conceptualization that tends to widely engage citizens and civil society in the decision-making process, and at the same time accomplish greater effectiveness of public services as a precondition to economic and social development. According to findings presented in this article, this modern approach to the study of governance is in close connection with the effects of managerial reforms and the globalization process. Good governance principles introduced in the European Commission’s document “European Governance – A White Paper” are especially focused on. The research’s starting assumption was that those principles derived from the so-called Copenhagen criteria, or political, economic and institutional conditions for membership in the European Union. The article identifies three main characteristics of different approaches to the concept of good governance: strengthening of administrative capacities, determination of principles which should contribute to the quality of contemporary governance assessment, and wider engagement of and consultation with the civil society.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The purpose of this paper is to research methods of in-service training of local servants in Croatian local self-government. The research conducted in the paper aims to contribute to scientific ...literature given that this area is relatively poorly researched and to determine to what extent the in-service training model is in accordance with the strategic model of human potentials development. To determine this, a legal analysis, an assessment of available documents on training programs and reports on local budgets in Croatian cities is being carried out. To examine more deeply the trends in the training of local servants and to answer the paper research question, a questionnaire was sent to Croatian cities. It is concluded that the importance of local servants training, which the scientific and professional literature strongly emphasizes, has not yet been recognized in Croatia as the legal framework does not emphasize the importance of training nor encourage its modernization, while at the same time very little funds for training are allocated from local budgets. The analysis of the questionnaire shows that the new trends in the training of local servants are very poorly represented and that ultimately the traditional (administrative) model of human potentials management still prevails in Croatian local and regional self-government.
The concept of good governance is analyzed with particular emphasis on reasons that contributed to its development, main characteristics and possible impact on reform approaches which aim at ...achieving quality of contemporary governance. Different conceptions and developmental characteristics of governance are firstly examined, concluding with contemporary conceptualization that tends to widely engage citizens and civil society in the decision-making process, and at the same time accomplish greater effectiveness of public services as a precondition to economic and social development. According to findings presented in this article, this modern approach to the study of governance is in close connection with the effects of managerial reforms and the globalization process. Good governance principles introduced in the European Commission's document "European Governance -- A White Paper" are especially focused on. The research's starting assumption was that those principles derive from the so-called Copenhagen criteria, or political, economic and institutional conditions for membership in the European Union. The article identifies three main characteristics of different approaches to the concept of good governance: strengthening of administrative capacities, determination of principles which should contribute to the quality of contemporary governance assessment, and wider engagement of and consultation with the civil society. Reprinted by permission of Fakultet politickih znanosti u Zagrebu
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Zapošljavanje društvenih manjina u javnoj upravi predstavlja poseban pristup odabira i zapošljavanja javnih službenika, koji se sve više proučava. Naime, promjene u socio-demografskoj strukturi ...stanovništva i sve intenzivnije usložnjavanje suvremenih društava dovode do razvoja politika i čitavog niza mjera koje, strukturom ljudskih potencijala u javnoj upravi, nastoje odraziti složenost društvene okoline. Pored toga, posebni oblici zapošljavanja društvenih manjina razvijaju se u okviru međunarodnog antidiskriminacijskog prava još od sredine 1960-ih. Budući da u dostupnoj literaturi ne postoje ujednačena definicija, klasifikacija i nazivlje kojima bi bili obuhvaćeni svi aspekti takvog oblika zapošljavanja, u radu se razmatra mogućnost integracije praktičnih pristupa. Polazeći od dvaju temeljnih pristupa zapošljavanja društvenih manjina, afirmativnog pristupa i pristupa upravljanja različitošću, analiziraju se različiti modeli zapošljavanja u odabranim državama. Na temelju provedene analize, iznosi se prijedlog klasifikacije posebnih mjera zapošljavanja društvenih manjina u javnoj upravi na afirmativne metode i integrativne metode.
U ovom radu razmatraju se uloga i učinci kvota u zapošljavanju osoba s invaliditetom u javnoj upravi. Kvotni sustav zapošljavanja uveden je u mnogim europskim zemljama, a temeljni mu je cilj povećati ...zapošljavanje osoba s invaliditetom, koje imaju otežan pristup radu i zapošljavanju i općenito su podzastupljene na tržištu rada. U Hrvatskoj su kvote za javnu upravu u primjeni već dvadeset godina. Kako bi se ocijenila uspješnost te, ali i drugih mjera integracije, u radu se najprije iznosi pregled relevantnog međunarodnog i hrvatskog zakonodavstva. Središnji dio rada koncentrira se na rezultate kvotnog zapošljavanja u hrvatskoj javnoj upravi i odabrana komparativna iskustva. Na temelju toga izvode se zaključci i donose preporuke za unapređenje stanja s obzirom na nezadovoljavajuće učinke takva oblika zapošljavanja.
Integracija migranata predstavlja jedan od najvećih suvremenih izazova za države EU-a, kao i velik izazov upravljanju različitostima u Europi općenito. Zbog toga je okvir za integraciju migranata u ...EU-u osmišljen kroz različite direktive i druge „mekane“ mehanizme. Iako integracija migranata i dalje ostaje prvenstveno odgovornost individualnih nacionalnih država, politike EU-a važne su zbog (promicanja) razmjene znanja i praćenja integracijskih praksi. EU o integraciji migranata govori kao o ključnom mehanizmu kojim se mogu maksimalno iskoristiti prilike kojima migracija može ostvariti doprinos razvoju EU-a, dok je s druge strane zapošljavanje od središnje važnosti za uključenost migranata. Zakonodavstvo EU-a sadrži učinkovit antidiskriminacijski okvir i
naglašava načelo jednakih prilika kao ključno integracijsko pitanje. U radu se kreće od pretpostavke da se integracijom migranata u području zapošljavanja ne samo prakticira antidiskriminacija, već da je isto tako važan doprinos migranata ekonomskom razvoju i kulturnom bogatstvu Europe jer europska radna snaga stari i brojčano opada. Provedena je analiza dokumenata europskih politika u kontekstu pristupa upravljanja različitostima, te se njome ističe potencijal različitosti pri postizanju boljeg organizacijskog učinka. U radu se tvrdi da je uspješna integracija migranata prepoznata ne samo kao ključ osiguranja njihove uključenosti, već kao potencijal za tržište rada zemlje domaćina i postizanje boljega ekonomskog učinka. Ipak, priljev migranata također može ugroziti fiskalnu održivost države ako se ljudski potencijali ne koriste pravilno. U radu se ističu različiti izazovi uspješnoj integraciji u tržište rada.
The integration of migrants is one of the biggest challenges to European Union (EU) countries today, and it represents a serious challenge to the management of European diversity. Because of this, a framework for the integration of migrants into the EU was developed through a range of directives and other “soft” mechanisms. Even though migrant integration remains the primary responsibility of nation states, EU policies are important with regard to knowledge exchange, its promotion, and the monitoring of integration practices. In EU discourse the integration of migrants is a key mechanism to maximising the opportunities and contributions that migration can make to EU development, while employment is central to the participation of migrants. European Union legislation provides a strong anti-discrimination framework and emphasizes the equal opportunity
principle as key integration issues. This paper’s starting assumption is that, besides the anti-discrimination aspect of migrant integration in the area of employment, their contribution to economic growth and cultural wealth is no less important because the European workforce is ageing and shrinking. An analysis of European policy documents has been carried out in the context of the approach to managing diversity, which highlights the potential of diversity for better organisational performance. It is argued that the successful integration of migrants is
recognised not only as key to better migrant participation but also as potential for the host society’s labour market and for increased economic performance. However, migrant inflow could also weaken a country’s fiscal sustainability if human resource potential is not used well. Several challenges to successful labour market integration are underlined in the paper.
Sub-municipal government is an instrument that complements traditional forms of citizen participation and as such contributes to the democratization of the decision-making process on local interests. ...The main task of sub-municipal government in Croatia is to serve as the consultation and communication mechanism within local units, allowing alternative representation of small communities’ interest, parallel with local councils. However, sub-municipal government has a rather weak position in terms of autonomy, financing, low transparency, size and other. Nevertheless, examples of some Croatian cities demonstrate the democratization potential of sub-municipal government. In this paper, a survey has been conducted in the city of Rijeka (third biggest in Croatia) with questionnaire being send to all of its sub-municipal units. The goal of the survey was to assess which roles sub-municipal units have. The results have shown that the role of sub-municipal local units as activators of local activities is the most developed one. The results are then used to provide guidance for further improvement of sub-municipal system in Croatia.
PDF
